Feds rule on healthcare law's Medicaid expansion

States must commit to fully expanding their Medicaid programs to take advantage of generous funding in the federal health care law, the Obama administration said Monday. The ruling affects a federal-state program that covers nearly 60 million low-income and severely disabled people, caught in a tug-of-war between Republican governors and the Democratic administration. Under the law, the federal government will cover 100 percent of the cost of the first three years of the expansion, gradually phasing down to a 90 percent share—still a far more generous match than states have traditionally received. The expansion, scheduled for 2014, is expected to provide coverage to about half the 30 million people uninsured people who will benefit from the law.